ABSTRACT: The Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River basin covers approximately 19,800 square miles, and drains parts of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Most of the basin lies within Georgia as does most of the population. The 1990 population in the basin was estimated at nearly 2.636 million. Most of the water withdrawn in the basin in 1990 (82 percent) was from Georgia. Withdrawals in Florida and Alabama during 1990 were each 9 percent of the total water withdrawn in the basin.
Water withdrawn in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River basin for 1990 totaled 2,098 million gallons per day, of which, approximately 17 percent (351 million gallons per day) was consumptively used. Of the total water used, nearly 86 percent was withdrawn from surface-water sources, and the remaining 14 percent was withdrawn from ground-water sources. Surface water withdrawals in the basin during 1990 were for thermoelectric power generation (60 percent), public supply (24 percent), self-supplied commercial-industrial uses (12 percent), and agricultural uses (4 percent). Ground water withdrawals in the basin for 1990 was for agricultural irrigation (58 percent), public supply (21 percent), self-supplied domestic use (11 percent), self-supplied commercial-industrial use (9 percent), and thermoelectric power generation (less than 1 percent). The Chattahoochee River was the source for most of the surface water used in the basin (64 percent), and the Floridan aquifer system was the source for most of the ground water used (44 percent) during 1990.